Friday morning links

Regarding milk.

Like many conspiracy theories, there is a tiny bit of truth buried in this. Mammals (including humans) normally have a lactose intolerance that occurs about the time of weaning. Due to some evolutionary drift, this intolerance began to disappear in Europeans and became a survival advantage. Domesticated mild producing animals provided a nutrient rich, year round supply of food that was also highly portable. Hence that genetic mutation flourished and became dominant in Europe.

But it's not 'normal' in the global sense.

#1 jay on 2017-03-17 09:23 (Reply)

I am as white as milk, but have nasty lactose intolerance.

#1.1 BD on 2017-03-17 09:58 (Reply)

"give up sugar for Lent"

That was an embarrassing read. I thought I was reading NaturalNews or one of the many kook diet sites. He shouldn't have admitted he was a Neuroscience Doctoral Candidate. Scary thought that he might be out there one day working on humans and not just rats.

It begs the obvious question; if sugar were that bad and if most Americans consume too much why is our health so good and our longevity goes up every year? It would seem to me that when someone considers an over the top article with wild ass claims of terrible physical and mental damage that they would at least be aware that the facts on the ground don't support their claim.

#2 GoneWithTheWind on 2017-03-17 10:01 (Reply)

Beware any curriculum, journal or person that has science in its title. Like calling yourself a lady*, you're not one if you have to advertise it.

*“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.” ― Margaret Thatcher

#2.1 BillH on 2017-03-17 10:16 (Reply)

"...why is our health so good and our longevity goes up every year?"

I disagree. There are a lot of unhealthy people around. Longevity may be increasing but so are a lot of debilitating diseases, cancer and diabetes and alzheimer's.

#2.2 LP on 2017-03-17 13:20 (Reply)

The death rate remains constant - one each.

The biggest gain in lifespan has been due to the widespread eradication of communicable diseases through sanitation and vaccination, with antibiotics layered on top of those. It's not that the oldest people live longer, but more people get to live to be old enough that the diseases you mention can kick in.

You can argue as well that Type-II Diabetes is a disease of affluence, in that more people have access to more food than they need, a reversal of the previous 10,000 years of human history, when the ability to put on and maintain body fat was a survival advantage.

#2.2.1 Another guy named Dan on 2017-03-17 14:18 (Reply)

We all do have to die of something. The question is "when"?

#2.2.2 Frances on 2017-03-17 19:53 (Reply)

Yeah, a lot of unhealthy people around today. Lardasses and problems caused by obesity mostly. You should have been around in the '30s. Every class I ever saw in elementary school had at least one deformed, limping polio survivor, sometimes two or three. The ultra-skinny kids were often TB survivors, sometimes infected by a tubercular parent. By high school in the early '40s things seemed to be a little better, or maybe I just got used to it. My first girl friend was a polio survivor, but it only showed a little. When mumps/measles/whooping cough season arrived the classrooms were often half empty. Sometimes I contributed to the emptiness. Sometimes the kids never came back to school. Not sure if they died, moved, were crippled or what, but kids used to just disappear from school and nobody thought much about it. I could get started on adult afflictions 75 years ago, but this is too long already.

#2.2.3 BillH on 2017-03-18 10:14 (Reply)

re:
"New York Assemblyman Unveils Bill To Suppress Non-Government-Approved Free Speech"

I knew the "author" of this bill.

David Weprin, and his brother Mark Weprin, are the sons of Saul Weprin, who was the New York State Assembly Speaker, back in the 1970s (by the way, Saul had a brother who wasn't in politics ..well not directly at least; the brother was a lawyer .. supposedly he was the "fixer" you had to go to in order to get access to Saul).
David and Mark took turns exchanging places in either the NYC Council, or the NYS Assembly, to evade term limits.
They grew up on 192nd Street and 64th Avene, Fresh Meadows NY.. top floor of a building owned by Harry Helmsley (whose neice lived on the 6th floor of same bldg).

In my opinion, the only reason they were able to get elected is because of their father's reputation in the district (said district is 75% Democrat enrollment); I hardly think either is any sort of intellectual giant, and other than charisma and family ties, they aren't qualified to be public servants.

The Bill he introduced is the work of the Democrat Party most likely, not the hand of the Weprins.

#3 Nunnya Bidnez, jr on 2017-03-17 10:09 (Reply)

" ...Unveils Bill To Suppress Non-Government-Approved Free Speech""

Also know as the "College for Everyone" bill.

#3.1 JK Brown on 2017-03-17 12:12 (Reply)

Milk: Would chocolate milk be non-racist?

Democrats have always considered disagreeing with them to be Un-Amaerican.

#4 Sam L. on 2017-03-17 10:21 (Reply)

Re: Trump's Brutally Honest Budget Puts GOP Lawmakers On The Spot

Since the '70s, the battle cry of conservatives was that government was too big and bloated and that there needed to be actual cuts in government spending, not just reductions in the rate of growth. This is the first time since then that a president even proposed a budget that actually does that. Not even Reagan, did that.

Now Republicans get a chance to actually vote on a budget that does that and some apparently feel boxed in a corner! They should be jumping for joy!

During the campaign, we heard that Trump was not a real ideological conservative. Well from where I sit, he's more of a real conservative than those "real" ones in Congress and the Senate. And what's more "real" than doing something because it is the right thing to do rather than because if falls into some ideological spectrum?

#5 mudbug on 2017-03-17 10:24 (Reply)

Turns out that "Trump is Eliminating Meals on Wheels to Starve the Elderly" is yet more Fake News from the leftist media.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/445878/meals-wheels-trump-budget-media-misleads-funding-cuts-kill-program

#5.1 Jim on 2017-03-17 21:37 (Reply)

"Republicans Keep Repeating the Same Tax Mistake"

I was actually surprised when I read this. I was expecting something different. What I got was an article ching me/Republicans for wanting to lower taxes and being stupid enough to believe it would improve the business climate or people's lives. Right out of stupid rationalizations 101. I get it the left wants more taxes not less. Any politicians who wants to cut taxes needs to be thrown out of office. My god man! What do you thing government is for if not to bleed you dry through taxes?

I accept that some taxes are necessary, but the government seems to believe that until they have it all more taxes are necessary. Can you imagine the incredible business and jobs boom that would take place in this country if we cut corporate taxes to zero? Can you imagine how much better working people's lives would be if personal income taxes were cut by half? There would be no holding the economy back. Quality of life would soar. Yes government would have to cut their budget and they may even need to stop some of the unconstitutional things they do today. But wouldn't that be a good thing too?

#6 IdahoBob on 2017-03-17 10:29 (Reply)

I generally like McMegan's analysis and reporting, and find her commenters top-notch. There are the usual trolls but they generally elicit humorous exchanges with the regulars, and the signal to noise ratio is good. However, she's got a couple of serious blind spots. The most recent one is going out in the deeper anti-Trump waters, though not quite to MSNBC levels, which has influenced some of her views of the current GOP priorities. The other is long-standing and what I would describe as a deep yearning for the return of the green-eye shade GOP to be, as Newt once described Bob Dole, 'tax collectors for the welfare state'. She would like nothing more than the GOP take the collective hit (the way Reagan did back in 1980s with Social Security) to turn Obamacare into something the Democrats can then take credit for.

#6.1 Christopher B on 2017-03-17 11:36 (Reply)

If you think Trump only used media sources for his 'wire tapping' claim, think again. He is president. He has access to classified materials and sources that we have no clue about. He also learned about all the means we have to spy on people. You also don't know what government intelligence told Trump when he got into office.

I would not be so quick to assume he looked at an NYT report from January and suddenly put 2-and-2 together. My guess is that 6 am tweet was after he learned a few things.

Um, remember Flynn? That was clearly a 'tap' of his conversation with a Russian connection. And it was leaked to the press - illegally. That was not 'fake news.'

Trump has said in a couple of weeks we will have more information. That he might even speak about it next week. Get ready.

#7 MissT on 2017-03-17 11:32 (Reply)

Every time I hear one of the talking heads say that now Trump is trying to walk it back and say that any kind of surveillance is now wire tapping. I want to yell at the TV. People have go to jail for recording the police on their cell phones and the charge is "wire tapping". By legislative and judicial decree wiretapping is indeed not just a tap on your phone it is any kind of "unapproved" recording.

There is also an interesting twist in the story. Trump has said that he first heard about the wiretapping in the NY Times. Well of course that does not mean it's true. But here's the rub, as a lawyer would say, where they lying then or are the lying now? Was it fake news when they first reported it or is what they are trying to report now fake news? It seems to me that Trump may well be smarter than the press. He keeps turning their own words back onto them. It isn't quite as effective as it should be because the press carefully sidesteps that part of the issue and focuses like a laser beam only on what they think Trump said that can be refuted or makes him look silly.

#7.1 GoneWithTheWind on 2017-03-17 13:20 (Reply)

The press is just trying to be jerks and call everything and anything Trump says a 'lie' no matter how much truth is in what he says. When you have 140 characters to use in a Tweet, are you really going to mince words? I know what he means by 'wire tapping' just like I knew what he meant when he talked about Mexico sending us their rapists and murderers.

If the first time Trump heard about the wire tap allegation was the NYT article, then he certainly has had the time to ask, find out more, get details. And, yes, is the NYT saying they made up their story about the wire tapping and the fact that reports were handed up to the White House and Obama?

I think Trump was willing to let this wire tapping thing pass. He may have found out a lot more in the early days of his presidency, but since he won the election, he was willing to leave it lie. Then, the leaks occurred, Flynn's conversation was leaked, Trump's phone conversations with foreign leaders were leaked, and then attention turned to Sessions. Trump realized that whoever was doing this leaking was not going to 'let sleeping dogs lie' and so he decided to go after them.

As Trump has said before, he only hits after he's been hit...and then he does so twice as hard.

#7.1.1 MissT on 2017-03-17 14:34 (Reply)

Anyone notice that Obama very quietly left the country this week and is now in French Tahiti for a month, sequestered on Marlon Brando's island?

He is preparing to ask for asylum in France if the arrest warrants come out.

#7.2 Jim on 2017-03-17 15:46 (Reply)

Now this is an incredibly fascinating thought...

#7.2.1 MissT on 2017-03-17 17:15 (Reply)

You really shouldn't tease this old woman with such pleasing speculation!

#7.2.1.1 mary on 2017-03-17 18:19 (Reply)

" Disagreeing With Democrats Is Now Considered Un-American"

What to you mean "now"? I expect if you look you'd find similar sentiments from Democratic National Committee member Bull Conner back in the day.

#8 JK Brown on 2017-03-17 12:10 (Reply)

" Chelsea wrote another book "

Chelsea is flogging another book. Authorship is not in evidence.

I await the tell all, "I was a ghostwriter for the Democratic party".

#9 JK Brown on 2017-03-17 12:14 (Reply)

"GLOBAL WARMING WILL SHRINK YOUR HORSE "

The only horses I have these days are charley horses. The smaller they are the happier I am.

#10 JK Brown on 2017-03-17 12:16 (Reply)

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Friday, March 17. 2017

Friday morning links